Hello and welcome. I was in the same position as you just a couple weeks ago. I did buy another Vibe.
I'm wondering, when you say this Vibe is the only one close to you, what radius did you look within? I had to go out to 300 mile radius to find even 6 Vibes that fell in the parameters I was looking for.
I do think it's a bonus that this dealership is offering you a 5000 mile warranty. Depending on how many trips you take or how far your commute is, that could equal as much as 6 months to see if anything goes wrong with it. Less than $1000 damage sounds like it wouldn't be anything more than cosmetic damage. I was in a total of four accidents with my previous Vibe and even with "only cosmetic damage" the one time, it still was over $3K for the full fix up, so $1000 is really next to nothing. I'm wondering if maybe just a bumper fell off or something. I know there's no way to tell, but with that small amount, I'd say you aren't looking at anything major at all if you choose to go with this car even though it's been in an accident.
Also, what types of activities are you planning to do with your future vehicle that you are worried the Vibe won't be able to hack it? I do a lot of outdoors-y things too, but nothing that would require a more specialized vehicle (like a Wrangler or something). I'm wondering if you are concerned with the Vibe's ability to haul more weight, or if it's more an axle issue, where you're concerned that the vibe won't handle rougher terrain? I would say 'yes' to the Vibe hauling a decent amount of weight, but 'no' to it handling, say, rocky terrain like a Jeep Wrangler would. The issue with that though, is that both Jeeps and Subarus hold their value really well - good for a current owner, but not good at all for someone looking for a decently priced used car. Also, a Jeep that might be more in your price range would have to be pretty old (because of the holding their value thing) and the older Jeeps, including Wranglers, had some serious issues with the axles always breaking on terrain that a Jeep supposedly could/should be able to handle so a Jeep (of any style) might be out of the running too if you are planning to take it into the mountains or somewhere like you see on their commercials.
Anyway, I'd recommend starting with a larger search area if you are not sold on the local Vibe and go from there. If you are looking to stay under $10K, you may be able to find one of the smaller SUVs (like a Honda CRV or a Kia or Suzuki <- I don't have any info on any of these so this is not a recommendation, just pointing out that there may be some other options), but I don't know as though they'd be much better than the Vibe as far as handling whatever activities you may want to do with it. They would likely be able to haul more weight though if you are pulling a camper.
Let us know what you decide.
